


Straight On 'Til Morning

by anthologia



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-25
Updated: 2013-01-25
Packaged: 2017-11-26 21:38:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/654667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthologia/pseuds/anthologia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the end, Starfleet needed a weapon more than they needed a captain. A military genius with hand-crafted layers of paranoia, her brilliance like a finely-honed knife. They broke her, piece by piece, until she was unable to function outside of the environment they’d created for her. Like a planet cut loose from its system, she drifted – and she came to him.</p><p>(Featuring Lady!Kirk and Dr. McCoy and a little bit inspired by Firefly.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Straight On 'Til Morning

From the minute Leonard McCoy sat down next to Jim Kirk on that shuttle to San Francisco, he felt like he’d been pulled into orbit around her. She was like a sun, magnificently brilliant and inescapable, the center of all life around her.

But he forgot that suns are blinding. That if you let yourself be distracted by the glow, you couldn’t see what was hiding under the surface. And every day, he curses himself for not looking deeper.

Beside him, Jim shifts discontentedly, rousing herself from whatever nightmares are plaguing her sleep today. He rubs light circles in her arm, hyper-aware of the people near them starting to stare, and murmurs soothing sounds in her ears until she settles again. He glares back at everyone watching them until one by one, they turn away.

It started with her placement in the accelerated program. Ticks, twitches, words out of place and incoherent. He should’ve seen it then, the warning signs, but he was too busy with coursework, didn’t put the pieces together until she was screaming in her sleep. By then, it was too late.

In the end, Starfleet needed a weapon more than they needed a captain. A military genius with hand-crafted layers of paranoia, her brilliance like a finely-honed knife. They broke her, piece by piece, until she was unable to function outside of the environment they’d created for her. Like a planet cut loose from its system, she drifted – and she came to him.

What Starfleet didn’t plan for was this: once he knew what was happening, nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Would keep him away from her. He’d arranged for them to be on the first shuttle available, before Starfleet could even register anything had gone wrong. From there, they’d charter a ship to a planet far away, somewhere Starfleet and the Federation hadn’t gotten their hands on yet. And then he’d find some way to fix this.

A hand touching his pulls him out of his inward fury, and squeezes, briefly. Jim’s looking at him, eyes clear despite the drugs he’d pumped into her to keep her calm and quiet for the shuttle ride. “Thank you,” she says, voice shot through with emotion she can’t quite hide, and rests her head back against his shoulder.

“Oh, hell.” He pulls her in close to plant a kiss on the top of her head, basking in the temporary sunlight. “I never wanted to work in space anyway.”


End file.
